


over the rainbow, out in the snow

by neuronary



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety, Campaign: Amnesty (The Adventure Zone), Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Kinda, M/M, alexandria gets kicked out and recieves seventeen parents as compensation, basically i'm making this up as i go, except i'm taking 'monster of the WEEK' very literally here, selective mutism, sternclay was gonna be background but now they're adopting alexandria and i'm powerless to stop them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:54:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29402997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neuronary/pseuds/neuronary
Summary: Duck Newton knows that the planet of Sylvane banishes people to Earth. He doesn't know they banish children, and he certainly doesn't know that he'll be the one to find a banished child.Aubrey Little knows that she can do magic. She doesn't know that she can read minds, and she certainly doesn't know why she can only read the mind of one terrified little girl.Agent Stern knows that something is going on at Amnesty Lodge. He doesn't know exactly what, and he certainly doesn't know how a lost little girl factors into it.Alexandria just wants to go home, but she's never gotten what she wants.
Relationships: Alexandra & Duck Newton, Barclay/Agent Stern (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	over the rainbow, out in the snow

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Know Who You Are](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17178533) by [BoPeepWithNoSheep](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoPeepWithNoSheep/pseuds/BoPeepWithNoSheep). 



> jo, this one's for you.
> 
> also, this fic was inspired by the wonderful bopeepwithnosheep's Know Who You Are, which I'd highly recommend. all their fics are incredible!

The snow came down in an impenetrable flurry, pelting against windows and doors as if it, too, needed to huddle around a fireplace with all the people it had sent scrambling back indoors. Duck Newton, National Park Ranger for the Monongahela Forest, sipped his coffee in the rangers’ cabin and deeply regretted agreeing to cover for his co-worker, Rick.

It could, he reflected optimistically, have been worse; he could have been in Juno Divine’s place, wandering around on patrol instead of on-call next to a space heater. He continued his puttering about the small cabin, checking the radios and snacking on a half-finished packet of Lays. It was almost peaceful, in its own way.

As if to spite him, the radio lit up and started spitting crackles. Duck groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face as he answered.

“Hey, Juno, y’okay? Over.”

“ _ Duck? Duck there’s a kid out here, I need your help. Over. _ ”

“Wait, what? Aw, shit.”

“ _ She’s got a blanket of some kind, but it ain’t much an’... an’ she looks to be in real bad shape. I don’t… I’m tryna get her out of here, get her to come with me, but she’s scared stiff and she won’t listen, and… look, you’re good with kids right? _ ”

“Yeah, I’m-- I’m comin’,” Duck said, scrambling for a flashlight and a space blanket. “Just keep talkin’ to her, make sure she stays awake, okay Juno? You got this.”

“ _ Okay, yeah. _ ” Juno paused for a second and the radio crackled with her heavy breathing. “ _ Duck _ ?”

“Yeah?”

“ _ I’m… I can’t be sure but I… I think she might be glowing. _ ”

Duck grabbed his hat and ran faster than he ever had before.

\---

Alexandria could still hear the human pacing outside the tree. Its boots were crunching against the not-quite-ice on the ground. A twig snapped and she flinched.

She’d thought she’d survive longer than this, before they pushed her through the gate. She hadn’t counted on it being so  _ cold _ , or on running into a human immediately, which was probably her own fault. If she could only have been less conspicuous, somehow.

“Look, kid, I swear I’m not gonna hurt you, okay? I just wanna get you somewhere warm so that you don’t get sick.”

_ Liar _ , Alexandria mouthed to herself, viciously. She may have been the worst Interpreter in history, and the first to be banished, and a whole lot of awful things because of that, but she wasn’t stupid. The human would kill her as soon as it saw her teeth or her eyes or her glowing skin. She would rather freeze to death in the flying ice, or be crushed by the tree, or let the quell take her so that she’d never be upset again, than be hunted down by humans.

The ground started to hum. For a moment, the happiest moment in a week, Alexandria thought that Sylvane had come back to her. For a split second, she imagined that She might return Alexandria home and smooth everything over. Then, the hum grew stronger and turned into a rumble, then a roar. Alexandria let out an involuntary squeak of pure terror, her mind conjuring up images of some kind of horrible, earthen beast, summoned by the human to help hunt her down.

“Oh, Duck, thank God,” the human said, and the roaring growl cut off entirely.

There were a few odd creaking noises, then the unmistakable sound of another pair of feet hitting the ground. Alexandria heard the crunching footsteps drawing closer and closer to her hiding place and squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as she could.

“Hey, Juno, could you, uh, would you back up a little? I just, uh… I think you’re frightening her?”

It was a different human, a man, maybe. He sounded almost kind, like Vincent.

_ Liar _ , Alexandria mouthed again, reminding herself. Humans were hunters, and when they realised she wasn’t human, they would kill her.

“Hey, there,” the man said, quieter. “I’m sorry about Juno, she’s terrible with kids. Well, kinda just with people. She mostly likes drawing plants,” the new human said.

Alexandria dug her nails into her knees. She wouldn’t fall for it. They thought she was human, that was the only reason they had to show her any kindness. She forgot to breathe for a moment, only remembering when her chest started to ache.

“You’re from Sylvane, aren’tcha?”

Alexandria couldn’t help the choked, terrified sob that fled her throat. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, burning their way down her frozen cheeks. She didn’t want to be hunted and killed for being a Sylph. She just wanted to go home.

“Hey, hey, no.” The human sounded panicked. “It’s okay, I promise. I work for the Pine Guard. You know the Pine Guard?”

Alexandria took a breath. She did know the Pine Guard. They’d met with her father when she was still small. They were humans that helped keep Sylvane a secret from other, meaner humans.

“Well, I work for the Pine Guard. I’m here to help out, yeah?”

Alexandria peeked up from under her thin cloak to see a round, stubbly face under an oddly shaped hat.

“My name’s Duck Newton,” the human continued, “little weird, I know, it’s a nickname. I can take you to Amnesty Lodge to stay with the other Sylphs. I just need you to be real brave and come out from this tree for me, okay?”

Alexandria took a deep breath and nodded. The Pine Guard were brave, and before she had turned on her, Janelle had always called her brave. Alexandria could be brave.

Her legs ached after staying so long in one position, but she managed to unfurl and squeeze back out of the crack in the tree bark that had hidden her from Duck Newton’s partner. She did her best to keep her cloak wrapped around her until her feet hit the ice-that-wasn’t-ice on the forest floor.

The cold burned at her bare feet as she tried to get herself upright. She winced and took a step back, hitting a tree root. The world tilted around her as the wind lashed more snow into her face.

Alexandria felt hands grabbing at her shoulders, but they didn’t feel like  _ her _ shoulders. She felt numb and dizzy and the sort of blank apathy she had at her trial.

“Mr. Duck Newton?” she tried to ask, tongue heavy in her mouth. “I think the Quell’s getting to me.”

He said something in response, but Alexandria didn’t hear it.

\---

“I’m taking her to Amnesty Lodge,” Duck said, hoping he sounded somewhat authoritative. Technically speaking, he outranked Juno, but only barely, and neither of them ever really gave a shit about it either way.

Thankfully, she just nodded, lips starting to tinge a worrying shade of blue. “S’good thinking. Not so far as town.”

Duck shifted the little girl - worryingly light for a human - over to one arm so that he could clap her on the shoulder. “Go back to the cabin,” he told her. “Warm up a little. You look worse than she does.”

Juno nodded again. She might’ve been in shock, but Duck didn’t have time to check, so he just crossed his fingers and hoped. “I’ll radio the police station,” she said shakily. “You just get her safe.”

Duck wanted to tell her no, wanted to say he’d do it, but he knew how bad a liar he was and he couldn’t stand lying to friends anyway. “Sure. Thanks, Juno.”

The girl shifted slightly, face scrunching up under the thin hood of her cloak and threatening to push it aside. Duck tightened his grip on her and turned to the van.

“I’ll radio as soon as I can,” he promised, bundling the Sylph into the passenger seat and wrapping her in another, thicker blanket before strapping her in and turning the heat up to full.

“You got a name, kid?” Duck asked as he sped away, watching Juno head back towards the rangers’ cabin in the rearview.

There was no answer from the girl, who was staring emptily at the dashboard.

“Kid?” Duck reached out to shake her shoulder and she turned to look at him, sluggishly. There were tears rolling down her cheeks, though she still didn’t make a sound. “Hey, it’s okay,” he tried to reassure her. “You don’t feel up to talking? That’s fine. How ‘bout I tell you all about Earth, hm? I work for the National Forest Service, as well as the Pine Guard. That means I take care of the forest and all the animals and such.”

After a moment, the girl nodded slowly, seeming a little more present. Duck kept talking, explaining the different kinds of trees, how he monitored their growth and why it was important. His charge’s focus was not easily held, but he nudged her a few more times, doing his best to keep her awake while she warmed up.

“You’re gonna be alright,” he promised her, as earnestly as he dared. “Mama will handle this all just fine, get you set up at the lodge.”

The girl turned her head to stare out of the window, as Amnesty lodge drew closer.

\---

Agent Joseph Stern was having a relaxing night in when Amnesty Lodge descended into complete chaos. Although he’d been staying there for nearly a week, he clearly made the other guests uncomfortable, but Aubrey Little had been kind enough to invite him to the collective movie night they were having during the snowstorm.

“It’ll be fun,” she’d insisted, literally dragging him out of his room. “I’m sure people would find you a lot less creepy if you actually spoke to them.”

Stern had spluttered a few half-protests that Aubrey had summarily ignored, and eventually settled into an armchair with a crossword.

“We’re watching  _ Ghostbusters _ ,” Jake insisted.

“That is so insensitive, asshole,” Aubrey retorted. Stern didn’t exactly know why it would be insensitive, but every conversation he’d ever heard between those two had been completely unfathomable, so he let it lie.

After a solid three crosswords, Barclay finally put his foot down and picked  _ Love, Actually _ , which kept Aubrey and Jake from bickering by uniting them in their distaste for romcoms.

“I think it’s cute,” Ms. Cobb said from the sofa, where she’d been piled upon by several protective guests. (When she’d come back from her hunting trip injured, all of the Lodge’s residents had been incredibly panicked, and still preferred to keep her in sight at all times. It was actually quite sweet.) “You young’uns just have no appreciation for romance.” She emphasised this by planting a sloppy kiss on Moira’s cheek.

“ _ Gross _ ,” Jake and Aubrey said in perfect unison, leading Dani to giggle into her sleeves.

Stern felt his chest warm slightly, being able to watch such an interaction without needing to take notes or solve a mystery. It came with the slight ache of knowing he was an outsider, like being a guest at another family’s Thanksgiving dinner.

“What about you, Agent?” Barclay asked, turning to him with an easy smile - likely aided by his half-finished glass of wine - and raising an eyebrow. “What do you think of my film choices, since everyone seems to have an opinion?”

“Oh, well, uh,” Stern began, wracking his brains for a diplomatic response and trying not to be distracted by Barclay’s forearms. “I’ve never actually seen--”

He was interrupted by a howl of wind as the door swung open, cold and snow rushing in after the uncharacteristically imposing form of Officer Duck Newton, carrying a large bundle of blankets.

“Mama!” he called, kicking the door shut behind him. “You got a new guest.”

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are appreciated! you can also find me [on tumblr](https://neuronary.tumblr.com).


End file.
